1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics (RF4CE)-based terminal and a communication system therefor, and more particularly, to local communication between terminals each having an RF4CE communication module, and communication between terminals each having an RF4CE communication module over an external communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The RF4CE Consortium, founded by major global home appliance manufacturers, agreed to work with the ZigBee alliance to jointly deliver a standardized specification for RF4CE in March, 2009. A core technology of future-generation home networking, RF4CE is designed to be deployed in a wide range of remotely-controlled audio/visual consumer electronics products, such as TVs, air conditioners, set-top boxes, and audio equipment. It is a protocol that allows for device-to-device communication and control in compliance with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard.
Compared to conventional wireless communication technologies, RF4CE does not require any particular receiver and thus supports bi-directional wireless communication between a controller and a target device. Remote controls conforming to the RF4CE standard will replace IR remote controls and can operate devices freely from long distances regardless of obstacles, thereby overcoming the line-of-sight problem of IR remote controls. For example, the signal transmitter of a conventional IR remote control for a TV should be pointed towards the receiver of a TV in order to control the TV. In contrast, an RF4CE remote control conforming to IEEE 802.15.4 can control the operation of a TV in a living room from a bedroom because it offers non-line-of-sight operation.
One of big features of RF4CE is that one-to-one communication is possible without any base station or receiver. For example, RF4CE allows for bi-directional communication between home appliances like a TV and a refrigerator without the need for installing a base station between them.
Accordingly, research and development is underway in anticipation that a future remote control will have a plurality of device profiles registered inside such that a user may remotely control a plurality of devices using a single remote control and further, the remote control of the future will even act as a communication convergence device such as a mobile phone.
In communication systems that provide portable phone services, data communication such as Short Message Service (SMS) messages is always conducted through the servers of service providers and charged per message. For example, when an SMS message is transmitted to a mobile terminal using a portable phone service or a communication terminal using an Internet telephony system, a fixed fee should be paid per SMS message.